Florida scientists did it confirmed that there is a new breed of mosquito in the city that can carry a very dangerous set of diseases, including yellow fever. And, although it is only in two counties in the state right now, a new paper indicates that its range could spread to the Sunshine State.
The new mosquito is known as Aedes scapularis, and its usual habitat is the tropics, varying throughout Central America and parts of South America and the Caribbean. However, there is only one case recorded in Florida, when larval samples were found in the middle of the Florida Keys in 1945.
But in 2019, entomologists at the University of Florida found specimens of this skeeter during a sample collection in the Everglades. In a study last year, scientists confirmed that mosquitoes were present in healthy numbers in all counties of Miami-Dade and Broward. Now, in a sequel paper, published this month in the journal Insects, scientists use environmental modeling to design this Aedes scapularis it could spread along the Florida coast.
In its usual habitat, Aedes scapularis has been linked to a number of serious diseases, including yellow fever, which is almost eradicated in the US; the last outbreak was in New Orleans in 1905. There is also the concern that mosquitoes like Aedes scapularis, which likes to bite both humans and animals, could trigger what is known as overflow events. These occur when diseases spread from one species to another, similar to how covid-19 was probably first transmitted to humans through animals. (To be clear, the mosquito is not a known transmitter of covid-19, so at least Floridians don’t have to worry about that.)
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New research shows that Aedes scapularis it probably reached Florida through travel and human trade, but climate change could play a role in its spread throughout the peninsula. Warmer temperatures will allow the bug to spread north. Although no cases of yellow fever have been detected where the mosquito is, it is known that they carry the disease in their native area, which increases the risk they could have in Florida.
It’s a familiar story, as rising temperatures allow disease-carrying mosquitoes to move in the poleward. Lancet found recently that warmer temperatures were responsible for the spread of dengue fever in new places; 2018 was the second worst year of the spread of dengue fever since the record began, and nine of the 10 hardest years have occurred since 2000. Another young Florida tourist Aedes aegypti, infected more than 50 people with the disease last summer. Research has been done on mosquitoes that can transmit the Zika virus similar conclusions.
Scientists have also warned that closer contact between humans and nature increases the risk of more widespread events in which animal-born diseases find more and more human hosts. Finding released last year It shows that spending just $ 40 to $ 58 billion a year could help prevent outbreaks of dangerous diseases, which are a fraction of the cost of a major outbreak.
We hope that we will not see another public health crisis led by mosquitoes following this endless pandemic. But if you plan to go to Disney World after getting vaccinated this summer, don’t forget to pack insect repellent just in case.